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Special Session with Bryan Schott rips the curtain back on Utah politics. No spin. No access journalism. No bootlicking. Just 25+ years of experience breaking down the stories that make elected officials squirm.
From backroom deals at the Capitol to the power plays you're not supposed to know about, Bryan delivers fearless political coverage and interviews with newsmakers who actually matter. This is Utah politics without the PR polish.
Independent. Unfiltered. Uncomfortable for all the right people.
Bryan Schott: Voters are angry.
Bryan Schott: That's the consistent message that Liban Muhammad says he's hearing
Bryan Schott: as he knocks doors across Utah's new first
Bryan Schott: congressional district.
Bryan Schott: Mohammed, a 27-year-old Democratic Socialist and son
Bryan Schott: of
Bryan Schott: Somali immigrants
Bryan Schott: pulled off one of the bigger upsets
Bryan Schott: of this election cycle
Bryan Schott: when he won the vote at the Democratic State Convention outright, besting former Congressman Ben McAdams on the final ballot.
Bryan Schott: Now he's trying to translate that grassroots energy into a district-wide
Bryan Schott: win
Bryan Schott: in the June 23rd primary
Bryan Schott: I sat down with Mohammed to talk about health care, the controversial Box
Bryan Schott: Elder County Data Center project, the anti-immigrant rhetoric that's targeting his campaign.
Bryan Schott: And why he says whoever wins the Democratic primary is going to win the election in November.
Bryan Schott: Leigh Ban, it's great to have you on the show today.
Bryan Schott: Thank you so much for for uh taking the time.
Liban Mohamed: Thank you.
Liban Mohamed: I'm really excited, Ryan.
Liban Mohamed: Uh you have an amazing show, so this is gonna be awesome.
Liban Mohamed: I already know.
Bryan Schott: Well, we shall see, so hold your judgment until the end.
Bryan Schott: But
Bryan Schott: um
Bryan Schott: Let's uh the the the question that I like to ask everyone who's running for office, it's pretty simple.
Bryan Schott: Why you?
Bryan Schott: Why now?
Liban Mohamed: Listen.
Liban Mohamed: With this new district
Liban Mohamed: flipping from plus 20 percentage points
Liban Mohamed: Republican to plus 24
Liban Mohamed: percentage points
Liban Mohamed: Democrat, and in that one of you know
Liban Mohamed: the most progressive open seats in the entire nation
Liban Mohamed: What this moment presents
Liban Mohamed: is the first time that Utah has
Liban Mohamed: opportunity to elect a progressive that's focused on working
Liban Mohamed: class issues, a leader who
Liban Mohamed: feels like they represent uh
Liban Mohamed: voters feel like it represents the hope that they're looking for, um
Liban Mohamed: and not just the certainty of the typical
Liban Mohamed: status quo.
Liban Mohamed: And
Liban Mohamed: The Democratic Convention showed that a lot of the delegates from all the different neighborhoods thought that I was that person.
Liban Mohamed: And I hope to live up to this moment and deliver a win on June 23rd
Liban Mohamed: and deliver on the working class issues.
Bryan Schott: You mentioned that this is one of the most progressive seats in the country.
Bryan Schott: What are you base basing that on?
Liban Mohamed: Yeah, so when you look at the results, it's really difficult to assess kind of the ideology of the Democratic base
Liban Mohamed: in Utah because of the limited amount of primary votes that we can use as an example.
Liban Mohamed: But if we take the last two presidential primaries, so 2016
Liban Mohamed: and
Liban Mohamed: as well as 2020, what you'll see is an overwhelming support.
Liban Mohamed: for leaders that are
Liban Mohamed: of more of that left side of ideology.
Liban Mohamed: Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren.
Liban Mohamed: We're talking about a state that's Democratic Party voted.
Liban Mohamed: 79
Liban Mohamed: %
Liban Mohamed: in favor of Bernie versus Hillary Clinton, who is obviously the face of the establishment
Liban Mohamed: in 2016.
Liban Mohamed: And then in 2020, Bernie was able to achieve
Liban Mohamed: actually
Liban Mohamed: not only
Liban Mohamed: the most votes.
Liban Mohamed: More than
Liban Mohamed: then
Liban Mohamed: Vice President
Liban Mohamed: Joe Biden
Liban Mohamed: running for president, more
Liban Mohamed: than Klobuchar, more
Liban Mohamed: than Bloomberg, all combined.
Liban Mohamed: So we're looking at a district that has an ideology that's different than
Liban Mohamed: a lot of what we see in Washington, DC.
Liban Mohamed: People who are open to something different, people who are focused.
Liban Mohamed: on something
Liban Mohamed: uh
Liban Mohamed: that's more akin to the progressive movement that we're saying on a national scale.
Bryan Schott: You use
Bryan Schott: the word
Bryan Schott: pr
Bryan Schott: progressive
Bryan Schott: and three of the candidates who are in this Democratic primary are self described pro
Bryan Schott: progressives.
Bryan Schott: How do you define that term
Bryan Schott: and how are you communicating that term
Bryan Schott: to voters?
Bryan Schott: This is a good question.
Liban Mohamed: Quite frankly, I don't like the terminology of progressive.
Liban Mohamed: I don't like the terminology of democratic socialist, all these labels, because it takes people away from the focus, which is the issues.
Liban Mohamed: To me, what I think I represent, what I am fighting for, is simple things.
Liban Mohamed: When it comes to affordability, our day-to-day lives, healthcare is a human right at a cheaper price.
Liban Mohamed: Fighting to make
Liban Mohamed: sure that
Liban Mohamed: every parent can afford
Liban Mohamed: child care.
Liban Mohamed: They
Liban Mohamed: shouldn't have to choose between their paycheck and the well being of their child.
Liban Mohamed: Fighting for access to housing.
Liban Mohamed: substantive policies that actually propose solutions to sol
Liban Mohamed: are
Liban Mohamed: solving the key fundamental issues that we're having today.
Liban Mohamed: And not just rhetorically at a high level, but specific policy agendas.
Liban Mohamed: And that's to me what it means to be a progressive, to progress
Liban Mohamed: our society in a way that we haven't been able to before, uh, with bold mechanisms
Bryan Schott: Now you are a self described democratic
Bryan Schott: socialist, and if you're a political junkie, a nerd like me, you know what that means
Bryan Schott: Well
Bryan Schott: I would say that the vast majority of people
Bryan Schott: voters aren't as tuned into politics as you and I might be.
Bryan Schott: I hope that a lot of the audience for the show is, but there are those who are not.
Bryan Schott: And it's very easy to paint the term democratic
Bryan Schott: socialist.
Bryan Schott: as a per
Bryan Schott: per
Bryan Schott: per
Bryan Schott: pejorative.
Bryan Schott: How do you get around that?
Bryan Schott: How are you
Bryan Schott: messaging that?
Bryan Schott: Because
Bryan Schott: I I find that an interesting uh conundrum
Bryan Schott: because one of the old adages is if you're in politics
Bryan Schott: if you're explaining
Bryan Schott: you're losing.
Bryan Schott: So
Bryan Schott: how do you
Bryan Schott: get past
Bryan Schott: people who might hear the word democratic
Bryan Schott: socialist?
Bryan Schott: and they j
Bryan Schott: and and immediately think about all the negative connotations.
Liban Mohamed: Um I actually disagree with the premise of that.
Liban Mohamed: So there is a poll
Liban Mohamed: done.
Liban Mohamed: I think it was by Hinckley, but it was published in the Desira
Liban Mohamed: News.
Liban Mohamed: You can check and
Liban Mohamed: see where
Liban Mohamed: figure out the exact source, but it was really interesting.
Liban Mohamed: And it showed that
Liban Mohamed: Utah's democratic base, well over 70%
Liban Mohamed: view
Liban Mohamed: democratic socialism
Liban Mohamed: as highly favorable.
Liban Mohamed: And I don't think that I'm in a position where I have to focus on explaining what this idea of democratic socialism is.
Liban Mohamed: and what that means to me.
Liban Mohamed: Rather what I have to focus on is the issue at hand and the solution that I'm proposing.
Liban Mohamed: And that
Liban Mohamed: that is the exact message that resonates.
Liban Mohamed: So let's take healthcare for example, something that I'm deeply passionate about and want to tackle as one of my top priority areas.
Liban Mohamed: We, the United States of America, spend more money on healthcare than any nation
Liban Mohamed: on earth.
Liban Mohamed: When you look at some of our peer nations,
Liban Mohamed: some of them we pay twice as much per pupil.
Liban Mohamed: Yet we are the only wealthy nation that does not guarantee healthcare coverage.
Liban Mohamed: And if we could propose a solution, akin to some of our peer nations, that would be able to provide full coverage for everyone with the kicker.
Liban Mohamed: Here's the kicker.
Liban Mohamed: while simultaneously lowering
Liban Mohamed: overall
Liban Mohamed: costs.
Liban Mohamed: To me, that is a no
Liban Mohamed: brainer
Liban Mohamed: And the way that is done
Liban Mohamed: is by making sure that the public, the people, and a single-payer
Liban Mohamed: system
Liban Mohamed: own our insurance.
Liban Mohamed: that our taxpayer dollars go towards serving us and our s
Liban Mohamed: our
Liban Mohamed: people, not towards the profiteers in the private sector
Liban Mohamed: insurance industry
Liban Mohamed: who are not providing the net value that we want to see.
Liban Mohamed: The value that we want to see is from our doctors, our hospital systems.
Liban Mohamed: But
Liban Mohamed: what is the insurance industry doing besides cutting a check?
Liban Mohamed: We the public can cut that check and we the public by doing so
Liban Mohamed: can make sure that the twenty-seven million adults that are not insured have coverage.
Liban Mohamed: The four million children that are
Liban Mohamed: uninsured.
Liban Mohamed: Have coverage.
Liban Mohamed: The 300,000 U-tons
Liban Mohamed: that are undersured
Liban Mohamed: have coverage.
Liban Mohamed: And we could do it while saving money.
Liban Mohamed: So
Liban Mohamed: to me, that's what I'm focused on.
Liban Mohamed: So call it whatever you like to call it.
Liban Mohamed: What I'm focused on is changing people's lives and saving our pockets.
Bryan Schott: Let me ask this.
Bryan Schott: Um
Bryan Schott: one of the things that's really been in the news
Bryan Schott: and
Bryan Schott: I'm sure that you're getting a lot of talk about it on the campaign trail
Bryan Schott: is the massive hyperscale
Bryan Schott: data center in Box
Bryan Schott: Elder County
Bryan Schott: Um
Bryan Schott: if you are in Congress, there you will be
Bryan Schott: you will have an opportunity to um
Bryan Schott: have some
Bryan Schott: a hand in in in regulating these.
Bryan Schott: Tell me what what you're hearing out on the campaign trail about this
Bryan Schott: and and and and and what are your thoughts on this
Bryan Schott: really rapid push to build what is likely going to be one of the largest data centers in the world.
Bryan Schott: if
Bryan Schott: and when it does get f
Bryan Schott: finished.
Liban Mohamed: People are upset.
Liban Mohamed: Um
Liban Mohamed: and that
Liban Mohamed: and that's across the political spectrum, the community, the people who
Liban Mohamed: live in that area, people across the city of Utah
Liban Mohamed: Do not want this to happen.
Liban Mohamed: We all understand that data centers don't belong in deserts.
Liban Mohamed: And I'm actually the only candidate who had a policy explicitly on data centers
Liban Mohamed: from the day I entered this race.
Liban Mohamed: Right there, that first uploading on my website, it was right there.
Liban Mohamed: A lot of people,
Liban Mohamed: cross
Liban Mohamed: the nation, the progressive movement, they're calling for a data center
Liban Mohamed: moratorium.
Liban Mohamed: But the reality is
Liban Mohamed: in Utah, we don't need a pause.
Liban Mohamed: We need a prohibition.
Liban Mohamed: In a state that has a great salt lake that's drying gum.
Liban Mohamed: And its drying up puts up toxic dust, lead, mercury, arsenic all into the air, causing an imminent public health crisis.
Liban Mohamed: The last thing we need is a major project that is consuming
Liban Mohamed: water
Liban Mohamed: in numbers that we can't even imagine, put our minds around.
Liban Mohamed: That's the last thing that we need.
Liban Mohamed: At
Liban Mohamed: that, the last thing that we need
Liban Mohamed: is a project that of course is not using clean
Liban Mohamed: energy 'cause
Liban Mohamed: billionaires
Liban Mohamed: don't do that, but is
Liban Mohamed: going to be entirely powered by natural gas plants.
Liban Mohamed: To power nine gigawatts of power.
Liban Mohamed: That's two
Liban Mohamed: almost three
Liban Mohamed: X
Liban Mohamed: the amount of power that we have.
Liban Mohamed: That we use in the entire state of Utah
Liban Mohamed: combined right now.
Liban Mohamed: And I actually saw some articles saying that they even are shooting their moonshot is 12.
Liban Mohamed: They're gonna what
Liban Mohamed: 4x
Liban Mohamed: what our entire energy consumption is right now?
Liban Mohamed: And the nine number
Liban Mohamed: that would cause what
Liban Mohamed: according to a professor, uh, an expert in this area from the University of Utah, Kevin
Liban Mohamed: Perry.
Liban Mohamed: Carbon emissions increase by 50%.
Liban Mohamed: So this is my policy proposal.
Liban Mohamed: I have a very clear one.
Liban Mohamed: It's been consistent the entire time.
Liban Mohamed: We don't need a pause.
Liban Mohamed: We need a prohibition on hypersphale data center development in all water stress areas
Liban Mohamed: in Utah, of which
Liban Mohamed: obviously is beyond water stress.
Liban Mohamed: Next, we need renewable energy requirements.
Liban Mohamed: 100%
Liban Mohamed: renewable energy for any data center that is developed across the state uh the nation
Liban Mohamed: needs to have 100%
Liban Mohamed: renewable energy requirements.
Liban Mohamed: The next thing.
Liban Mohamed: Water neutral requirements.
Liban Mohamed: And lastly, we need costation rules.
Liban Mohamed: If we have to build a new substation, if we have to build new transmission lines, they
Liban Mohamed: caused it, they
Liban Mohamed: pay for it.
Liban Mohamed: We should not be subsidizing
Liban Mohamed: profiteering
Liban Mohamed: if
Liban Mohamed: we're socializing costs
Liban Mohamed: while private sector interest gets to privatize gains.
Liban Mohamed: That's the exploitation.
Liban Mohamed: And what I want to focus on when I get elected to Congress
Liban Mohamed: as the only person with big tech experience is coming up with substantive, tangible, specific solutions like I just articulated now.
Liban Mohamed: To hold them accountable.
Liban Mohamed: It's time for a new generation of leadership that understands the new generation of issues that we're facing and has the expertise, ability, relationships, and most importantly, integrity to pull it off.
Liban Mohamed: And that I believe I am.
Liban Mohamed: So I'm really excited to make that a core
Liban Mohamed: core uh
Liban Mohamed: focus of my campaign
Liban Mohamed: and service
Bryan Schott: Let me follow up on one thing that you just said
Bryan Schott: because I was struck by it.
Bryan Schott: You said
Bryan Schott: people
Bryan Schott: are angry.
Bryan Schott: That's the sense that I get too.
Bryan Schott: And when
Bryan Schott: voters are angry
Bryan Schott: And they're in the mood to, for want of a better term, throw the bums out, that's when elections tend to get wacky.
Bryan Schott: Characterize
Bryan Schott: the kind of anger that you are experiencing
Bryan Schott: from voters.
Bryan Schott: uh
Bryan Schott: as you are out on the campaign trail
Bryan Schott: because uh I I think that
Bryan Schott: that that is gonna be a defining
Bryan Schott: care
Bryan Schott: characteristic of this upcoming
Bryan Schott: 2026 mid-midterm election.
Bryan Schott: Uh
Bryan Schott: I'm just curious about
Bryan Schott: aside from the the the data center, what else are they angry about?
Bryan Schott: out
Bryan Schott: because that's that's my sense too that they're angry, but it
Bryan Schott: it's really hard to pi
Bryan Schott: uh it
Bryan Schott: and and and I'm not asking you to to to to to to to categorize what they're angry
Bryan Schott: about, but there is this current of anger from voters.
Bryan Schott: And that's when you get
Bryan Schott: interesting things happening in elections because when they're
Bryan Schott: when voters are in the mood to throw the bums
Bryan Schott: out, that's when you get wave elections, that's when you get change elections.
Bryan Schott: And so I'm curious
Bryan Schott: I'm curious
Bryan Schott: what
Bryan Schott: what kind of anger you're you're
Bryan Schott: you're in
Bryan Schott: you're
Bryan Schott: meeting when you're out talking with with v
Bryan Schott: voters.
Liban Mohamed: There's a fundamental
Liban Mohamed: concern
Liban Mohamed: that I think goes across many issues.
Liban Mohamed: It's that
Liban Mohamed: voters feel
Liban Mohamed: that our government, the establishment, the elites
Liban Mohamed: are
Liban Mohamed: prioritizing
Liban Mohamed: profiteering, are
Liban Mohamed: prioritizing matters abroad, are
Liban Mohamed: prioritizing
Liban Mohamed: things that are not the things that we need them to be.
Liban Mohamed: This
Liban Mohamed: ethos
Liban Mohamed: that I have
Liban Mohamed: focused
Liban Mohamed: across
Liban Mohamed: my
Liban Mohamed: campaign
Liban Mohamed: is
Liban Mohamed: American diplomacy abroad and our
Liban Mohamed: own dignity at home.
Liban Mohamed: And I came up with that line because I feel like that's exactly what I
Liban Mohamed: learning from folks.
Liban Mohamed: Whether it's the data centers and feeling like our environment is being exploited.
Liban Mohamed: Our taxpayers are being exploited because
Liban Mohamed: why are we subsidizing a thirty billion dollar
Liban Mohamed: project
Liban Mohamed: that if it's such a great business, you don't need to be subsidized.
Liban Mohamed: Why are we subsidizing something that's gonna consume our moder water when we're in a drought?
Liban Mohamed: Why are we subsidizing something that's gonna increase our carbon emissions by fifty percent?
Liban Mohamed: Right?
Liban Mohamed: Why are we funding endless wars abroad?
Liban Mohamed: Why are we
Liban Mohamed: funding
Liban Mohamed: ICE to come and essentially terrorize our community?
Liban Mohamed: Up in the northwest, but
Liban Mohamed: we have
Liban Mohamed: A prison?
Liban Mohamed: We're about to have an ICE facility.
Liban Mohamed: You know what we don't have in the northwest of the Salah
Liban Mohamed: Valley?
Liban Mohamed: We don't have a high school.
Liban Mohamed: We don't have a hospital.
Liban Mohamed: It is time
Liban Mohamed: for us to start focusing on the ordinary people's issues and serving Americans, serving our neighbors.
Liban Mohamed: And treating our people with dignity.
Liban Mohamed: And people are frustrated
Liban Mohamed: because that
Liban Mohamed: fundamentally is something that they don't see happening
Liban Mohamed: and they're protesting.
Liban Mohamed: They went all the way off to Tremont
Liban Mohamed: to protest.
Liban Mohamed: I saw people from St.
Liban Mohamed: George, from Cedar City.
Liban Mohamed: I saw people from other states
Liban Mohamed: even.
Liban Mohamed: In protest
Liban Mohamed: of exploitation.
Liban Mohamed: So
Liban Mohamed: I think that's the fundamental frustration that's happening right now.
Liban Mohamed: A lack of
Liban Mohamed: investment in us
Liban Mohamed: and an overinvestment
Liban Mohamed: in the elites.
Liban Mohamed: And
Liban Mohamed: war
Liban Mohamed: and things that aren't serving us in our day-to-day lives.
Bryan Schott: You are a Gen
Bryan Schott: Z candidate, you're 27 years old, and I'm curious how
Bryan Schott: that is
Bryan Schott: shaping
Bryan Schott: this
Bryan Schott: race for you
Bryan Schott: shaping how you're approaching this race.
Bryan Schott: Because if you look at the voter registration numbers, about
Bryan Schott: twenty-two
Bryan Schott: percent of this new first
Bryan Schott: congressional district
Bryan Schott: They're Gen
Bryan Schott: Z
Bryan Schott: vo vo
Bryan Schott: voters.
Bryan Schott: Among
Bryan Schott: Democrats, that's about 24%.
Bryan Schott: How are you approaching this race as a member of that cohort?
Bryan Schott: How's that shaping your approach to this race?
Bryan Schott: And also
Bryan Schott: how are you
Bryan Schott: bridging what m
Bryan Schott: could be a generational
Bryan Schott: gap with
Bryan Schott: older vo
Bryan Schott: voters who m
Bryan Schott: you know who are not in that Gen
Bryan Schott: Z group
Liban Mohamed: Yeah, absolutely.
Liban Mohamed: So
Liban Mohamed: fundamentally, I think the big thing
Liban Mohamed: special about Gen Z
Liban Mohamed: um
Liban Mohamed: is our ability to communicate.
Liban Mohamed: and find ways to resonate in mediums and means
Liban Mohamed: that are accessible to many.
Liban Mohamed: So
Liban Mohamed: I'm really focusing in on the strengths that I have from that aspect.
Liban Mohamed: And most
Liban Mohamed: importantly, engaging Gen
Liban Mohamed: Z
Liban Mohamed: to be the voices that engage the generations that are older than us.
Liban Mohamed: We've been building a really awesome grassroots movement.
Liban Mohamed: So
Liban Mohamed: diving into
Liban Mohamed: the bases that really resonate with us within the young
Liban Mohamed: base
Liban Mohamed: has
Liban Mohamed: been a really special way to be able to get people who are willing to knock doors, people who are willing to share content, and people who are willing to spread the message in a way that resonates.
Liban Mohamed: I don't try to focus my policy specifically on Gen Z
Liban Mohamed: other than the things that we are all facing, whether it's housing, whether it's health care, whether it's child care, whether it's
Liban Mohamed: fighting for, you know, student debt relief.
Liban Mohamed: Um, a lot of the issues that I'm focusing on span across generations.
Liban Mohamed: Um
Liban Mohamed: and my key engagement with the Gen Z community is using them as a vehicle to spread that.
Liban Mohamed: Um and it's been quite successful thus far.
Bryan Schott: I think that that's a fair answer, but as a follow-up, do you find that some older voters dis
Bryan Schott: dismiss you because of your age?
Bryan Schott: Are you finding that at all on the campaign trail?
Bryan Schott: Or are they receptive?
Bryan Schott: And and willing to listen to what you have to say.
Liban Mohamed: Face
Liban Mohamed: value people may have their doubts, but when they hear me speak, when they hear my policies, when they get to learn about the experiences that I had in the results
Liban Mohamed: I was
Liban Mohamed: able to produce, they become quite open to this campaign.
Liban Mohamed: Quite frankly,
Liban Mohamed: as I said before, the one thing that I learned in the Democratic Convention, the one thing that I've learned
Liban Mohamed: of
Liban Mohamed: many things throughout this journey
Liban Mohamed: engaging folks
Liban Mohamed: is
Liban Mohamed: people
Liban Mohamed: are fed up with the status quo.
Liban Mohamed: They are fed up with the status quo
Liban Mohamed: and they want something different.
Liban Mohamed: And yes, they see me as a young person who may not have the 10 year of experience as the others, but what they also see me as
Liban Mohamed: is a person that has produced more results than any of the other progressive candidates legislatively.
Liban Mohamed: Even though I wasn't a elected official, even though I'm twenty seven years old, I was able to get CPR requirements passed for every single high schooler.
Liban Mohamed: and funding in perpetuity to address the number one cause of death in our state, in our nation, in the world cardiovascular disease.
Liban Mohamed: I was able to get CPR
Liban Mohamed: training requirements.
Liban Mohamed: for our emergency dispatchers.
Liban Mohamed: I was able to work with Democrats and Republicans to get postpartum
Liban Mohamed: Medicaid coverage extended from 60 days.
Liban Mohamed: to a year.
Liban Mohamed: So
Liban Mohamed: I asked people not to judge me by my age, but by the re
Liban Mohamed: by the results that I was able to produce
Liban Mohamed: and the content of my character.
Liban Mohamed: And my job is to be out there doing as many conversations as I possibly can with voters, folks like yourself, and give them the opportunity to learn a little bit more about myself.
Liban Mohamed: And I think across generations
Liban Mohamed: we'll have that ability to appeal.
Bryan Schott: Speaking about your experiences on the campaign trail, ever since you've j jumped into this race, you've been the target of some pretty ugly
Bryan Schott: anti-immigrant
Bryan Schott: uh
Bryan Schott: rhetorics, uh
Bryan Schott: Islamophobic red
Bryan Schott: red
Bryan Schott: rhetoric.
Bryan Schott: Uh how much of a toll is that taken on you?
Bryan Schott: I mean, I I I can't even imagine
Bryan Schott: you know, sitting from my perch as, you know, a
Bryan Schott: an older
Bryan Schott: white man.
Bryan Schott: I can't imagine what it's like to walk in your shoes, putting yourself out there as a candidate when you know that just this really ugly hatred
Bryan Schott: is coming your way, especially in
Bryan Schott: in in today's online
Bryan Schott: world
Bryan Schott: where
Bryan Schott: any
Bryan Schott: coward can hide behind a uh a fake screen name and say the worst things
Bryan Schott: possible.
Bryan Schott: And
Bryan Schott: I know that people say that they want to just let that roll off their back, but that's got to be taking a toll on you somehow.
Bryan Schott: So I'm curious how that shaped your approach to this race or what that experience has been.
Liban Mohamed: The rhetoric out there that I'm facing is a reflection of a sentiment
Liban Mohamed: that
Liban Mohamed: honestly
Liban Mohamed: is primarily being driven by the President of the United States of America.
Liban Mohamed: The person who's supposed to be the leader, the commander-in-chief, the leader of freedom, that person is a person who is proactively
Liban Mohamed: consciously
Liban Mohamed: trying to instill fear
Liban Mohamed: into our immigrant communities, into
Liban Mohamed: our Somali American communities specifically, just because
Liban Mohamed: He can't stand the opposition of our strong leaders like Congresswoman Ilhan
Liban Mohamed: Omar, who has endorsed us, for example, right?
Liban Mohamed: And he when he's trying and trying his best to instill fear in us,
Liban Mohamed: He and all
Liban Mohamed: those others, they want to see if we're gonna fall back or if we're gonna stand tall.
Liban Mohamed: And
Liban Mohamed: I also want to tell you something that's true, in my opinion.
Liban Mohamed: A lot of the rhetoric that we were
Liban Mohamed: facing, I mean, when I announced
Liban Mohamed: this campaign, Brian, I had brand new social media accounts just for the campaign.
Liban Mohamed: I was so excited.
Liban Mohamed: It made really awesome video.
Liban Mohamed: It was like
Liban Mohamed: One of the most inspiring moments in my life.
Liban Mohamed: I feel like I can do something for my community.
Liban Mohamed: I can get new people involved in that process.
Liban Mohamed: I'm so excited.
Liban Mohamed: Brand new account, zero followers.
Liban Mohamed: I post
Liban Mohamed: an announcement.
Liban Mohamed: It gets 2.
Liban Mohamed: 3 million views on
Liban Mohamed: X.
Liban Mohamed: It also gets over
Liban Mohamed: 40,000
Liban Mohamed: anti-immigrant
Liban Mohamed: Islamophobic
Liban Mohamed: racist posts.
Liban Mohamed: People are frankly shocked, Brian, some of them
Liban Mohamed: and maybe even scared.
Liban Mohamed: that a twenty-seven year old son of Somali immigrants
Liban Mohamed: who's Muslim in the state of Utah
Liban Mohamed: of all places
Liban Mohamed: has
Liban Mohamed: this audacity to think that he can run for Congress
Liban Mohamed: and believes that he belongs
Liban Mohamed: in the halls of United States Congress has what it takes.
Liban Mohamed: But the truth is
Liban Mohamed: a lot of that rhetoric is not people from Utah.
Liban Mohamed: A lot of it is bots.
Liban Mohamed: A lot of it is people
Liban Mohamed: outside of this state.
Liban Mohamed: across our nation, DC
Liban Mohamed: political operatives who think that it's politically advantageous to be bigoted, who
Liban Mohamed: think
Liban Mohamed: that
Liban Mohamed: it's in their strategic benefit to spread hate.
Liban Mohamed: But in that there's also real hate.
Liban Mohamed: But in that
Liban Mohamed: hate
Liban Mohamed: is often
Liban Mohamed: beneath that
Liban Mohamed: some pain, sometimes
Liban Mohamed: beneath that pain is legitimate grievances
Liban Mohamed: Our neighbors
Liban Mohamed: they feel shut out, they feel taken advantage of, they feel left behind.
Liban Mohamed: I I would say even sometimes they feel abandoned.
Liban Mohamed: But it's not our immigrant communities that are at fault.
Liban Mohamed: It's not the Somali American community.
Liban Mohamed: It's not the Latino community that we have here.
Liban Mohamed: It's not the LGBTQIA community.
Liban Mohamed: What it is, is a system that prioritizes corporations, greed, the war machine
Liban Mohamed: over
Liban Mohamed: just
Liban Mohamed: like us, the ordinary people.
Liban Mohamed: And so what I'm gonna be focused on is
Liban Mohamed: not
Liban Mohamed: reacting to that hate, but instead looking at it in a positive way and finding the beauty behind the madness and using it as a platform to talk about
Liban Mohamed: the fundamental issues that all of our neighbors are facing, which is affording the roof of their head, being able to take care of their child, being able to afford health care.
Liban Mohamed: And if we, the people that they hate so much, are the ones who are fighting for them the hardest, serving them the most, loving them the most.
Liban Mohamed: That is how we combat this.
Liban Mohamed: So, yes, it's hurtful, obviously, and all those things, but I can't
Liban Mohamed: Focus on that.
Liban Mohamed: This is what I got myself into.
Liban Mohamed: And I got myself into this in part because I knew this
Liban Mohamed: hatred is out there.
Liban Mohamed: And I wanted to try my best.
Liban Mohamed: And we'll see if I can accomplish it throughout this journey to be the example
Liban Mohamed: that a lot of these people who have these beliefs
Liban Mohamed: of communities that I come from.
Liban Mohamed: uh
Liban Mohamed: can see
Liban Mohamed: as actually a positive and
Liban Mohamed: what we're
Liban Mohamed: a flexion of what we really are.
Liban Mohamed: So
Bryan Schott: I appreciate that answer and um
Bryan Schott: I'm sorry that I had to ask it
Bryan Schott: because that's there's some real
Bryan Schott: there's some real ugliness out there and
Bryan Schott: A lot of people like to chalk that up to our political mo mo
Bryan Schott: moment we're in, but some of the stuff I've seen, specifically about you, is just
Bryan Schott: i
Bryan Schott: really
Bryan Schott: makes me question, you know, what what's happening in this country that was supposed to be a melting pot.
Bryan Schott: Uh
Bryan Schott: I d
Bryan Schott: I
Bryan Schott: I don't want to dwell on that anymore, but uh
Bryan Schott: I
Bryan Schott: We'll
Bryan Schott: start that again.
Bryan Schott: I don't want to dwell on that any longer.
Bryan Schott: I I want to focus a little bit uh
Bryan Schott: as we wrap up here about this race, about this
Bryan Schott: this primary election.
Bryan Schott: You're one of four candidates.
Bryan Schott: You did pull an upset at the Democratic State Convention.
Bryan Schott: You won fift fifty one percent of the vote.
Bryan Schott: won the vote outright, um
Bryan Schott: uh
Bryan Schott: uh
Bryan Schott: lasting all the way until the final round when you defeated former Congressman Ben Mc
Bryan Schott: Mick
Bryan Schott: McAdams.
Bryan Schott: How are you translating that
Bryan Schott: win at convention?
Bryan Schott: the
Bryan Schott: the fifty one percent of
Bryan Schott: convention, um
Bryan Schott: to a more district
Bryan Schott: wide win to
Bryan Schott: to a contest that's that's district wide, in which you've got one of the candidates who has more name ID and is better funded than
Bryan Schott: than
Bryan Schott: everyone else.
Bryan Schott: It's it's clearly um you know an uphill battle for you so I'm wondering how you're approaching that and and and how you plan to try translate that.
Liban Mohamed: I disagree with the premise that it's clearly an uphill battle for us because we're about
Liban Mohamed: to
Liban Mohamed: launch
Liban Mohamed: what I would believe is going to be one of the most
Liban Mohamed: uh
Liban Mohamed: robust grassroots movements that the city
Liban Mohamed: uh the state
Liban Mohamed: not the
Liban Mohamed: city the state of Utah
Liban Mohamed: has
Liban Mohamed: ever seen
Liban Mohamed: The amount of people who are signing up to volunteer
Liban Mohamed: that we're soon about to deploy, I think is going to be a really beautiful experience.
Liban Mohamed: What we saw in the Democratic Convention is a slate of delegates representing each and every neighborhood across this entire district.
Liban Mohamed: People from different backgrounds.
Liban Mohamed: I believe the number was
Liban Mohamed: Don't quote me on this, but it might have been like 90%.
Liban Mohamed: Some dramatic number of the delegates were new delegates this year.
Liban Mohamed: People who are not the establishment, a true representation of what this district is, and the people who are most informed.
Liban Mohamed: and excited for the opportunity for something different.
Liban Mohamed: And they chose
Liban Mohamed: us because they had the privilege of knowing us.
Liban Mohamed: And what my job is now
Liban Mohamed: It's to organize this movement so that each and every voter gets that same experience that the delegates had at convention, which is the privilege to know us.
Liban Mohamed: And if they know us,
Liban Mohamed: they
Liban Mohamed: support us.
Liban Mohamed: If they know us, they organize.
Liban Mohamed: If they organize
Liban Mohamed: and they share the word.
Liban Mohamed: And so I'm highly confident in
Liban Mohamed: our ability to prevail despite what the state of the candidates look
Liban Mohamed: like.
Liban Mohamed: simply because of our ability to resonate and most importantly, nothing to do with me, but
Liban Mohamed: all of the people who are coming out to hit
Liban Mohamed: the doors, to phone
Liban Mohamed: bank, to text
Liban Mohamed: bank.
Liban Mohamed: to
Liban Mohamed: share a word with their friends and family.
Liban Mohamed: I think it's gonna be a really fun journey.
Liban Mohamed: And I wish you were at convention.
Liban Mohamed: Like it was a really beautiful experience.
Liban Mohamed: And we just gotta replicate that same experience that those folks have.
Liban Mohamed: To everybody in the district.
Bryan Schott: Yeah, I decided to spend the day down with with the Republicans, so I was
Bryan Schott: that much
Bryan Schott: where I was on that
Bryan Schott: day.
Bryan Schott: Um
Bryan Schott: does
Bryan Schott: does it change your your co
Bryan Schott: your calculation on this primary at all, given that the Democrats have an open primary
Bryan Schott: It's not just the Democrats who are going to be voting on this.
Bryan Schott: Independents can request a ballot.
Bryan Schott: Registered Republicans can request a ballot.
Bryan Schott: So
Bryan Schott: you know it's
Bryan Schott: it's going to be difficult to really predict what the electorate is going to look like.
Bryan Schott: Because you don't know who is requesting a ballot.
Bryan Schott: Does that change your
Bryan Schott: your calculations on this at all?
Liban Mohamed: But they do
Liban Mohamed: what the electorate looks like is less of effective because there's one thing that we do know is what the electorate is facing.
Liban Mohamed: If they're facing
Liban Mohamed: raising premium cost, they have a place in this campaign.
Liban Mohamed: If they feel like their childcare bills are too high
Liban Mohamed: If they feel like they can't afford to take care of their child because they don't have paid parental leave when they're a new mother, a new father, they have a place in this campaign.
Liban Mohamed: If they feel like housing is too expensive in
Liban Mohamed: Utah
Liban Mohamed: and there's a crisis going on, they have a place in this campaign.
Liban Mohamed: If they feel like they need a leadership that is focused on the everyday issues
Liban Mohamed: Focus on American diplomacy abroad
Liban Mohamed: and most importantly
Liban Mohamed: our own dignity
Liban Mohamed: right here at home.
Liban Mohamed: They have a place in this campaign.
Liban Mohamed: So whether they're a Republican, whether they're
Liban Mohamed: independent, whether they are a Democrat or how far left they are, it does not matter.
Liban Mohamed: What matters is
Liban Mohamed: that we carry ourselves in the way that resonates, that we're positive, that we organize, that we knock every single door in this entire district
Liban Mohamed: and let people know
Liban Mohamed: that we are here for nothing else.
Liban Mohamed: besides uh
Liban Mohamed: to do our best and serve them and learn from them.
Liban Mohamed: And I think that message at the end of the day
Liban Mohamed: is what resonated in convention and with the right organizing efforts, it'll resonate.
Liban Mohamed: with the district at large.
Liban Mohamed: And then funding wise, we're starting to do really well.
Liban Mohamed: Our grassroots
Liban Mohamed: fundraising has been going actually exceptional recently.
Liban Mohamed: We just hosted
Liban Mohamed: on with Congresswoman Elhan Omar.
Liban Mohamed: We're about to get a lot more national endorsements and support.
Liban Mohamed: We're building something really special here.
Liban Mohamed: So I'm excited for what's to come and I think we're going to shock people once again.
Bryan Schott: Um
Bryan Schott: okay now let's let's project forward.
Bryan Schott: Hypothetically you win the the the primary in June.
Bryan Schott: Um
Bryan Schott: this
Bryan Schott: d
Bryan Schott: district it's
Bryan Schott: it's not a democratic majority
Bryan Schott: d just
Bryan Schott: Dis
Bryan Schott: district.
Bryan Schott: If you look at the numbers, and I just pulled the most recent uh
Bryan Schott: voter
Bryan Schott: registration numbers that I have access to.
Bryan Schott: It's about 35%
Bryan Schott: independents, 33%
Bryan Schott: Republicans, and then about a quarter
Bryan Schott: Dem
Bryan Schott: Democrats.
Bryan Schott: So
Bryan Schott: how do
Bryan Schott: you
Bryan Schott: approach or or or or
Bryan Schott: Do
Bryan Schott: do you need to do something
Bryan Schott: or what would you need to do to broaden your appeal?
Bryan Schott: Uh, because you're gonna have to put together a coalition that's not just deb
Bryan Schott: Democratic vo
Bryan Schott: voters.
Bryan Schott: You're going to need
Bryan Schott: independents
Bryan Schott: and even some
Bryan Schott: re
Bryan Schott: Republicans
Bryan Schott: in order to win in November.
Bryan Schott: So
Bryan Schott: how
Bryan Schott: what what would your cal
Bryan Schott: calculation for for that be?
Liban Mohamed: The registration
Liban Mohamed: numbers first and foremost
Liban Mohamed: is not
Liban Mohamed: a reflection of how people vote.
Liban Mohamed: The best way to understand the district makeup is how they vote.
Liban Mohamed: And so
Liban Mohamed: if they voted just in 2024
Liban Mohamed: plus 23
Liban Mohamed: almost plus 24 percentage points in favor of Kamal Harris
Liban Mohamed: And
Liban Mohamed: this district, if you map it out, has traditionally voted Democrat, then I would say that it is indeed a Democratic district and that the independent voters within it are leaning towards that side
Liban Mohamed: So the in
Liban Mohamed: just
Liban Mohamed: cause somebody's
Liban Mohamed: registered as an independent doesn't necessarily mean that they're more of a moderate or
Liban Mohamed: conservative.
Liban Mohamed: It means that they don't feel like the two-party system represents their values.
Liban Mohamed: And I myself resonate with that.
Liban Mohamed: So
Liban Mohamed: anybody who feels like they want a leader that's simply focused on the issues and not focus on appealing to a specific base.
Liban Mohamed: That's what this is about.
Liban Mohamed: I'm not seeking to only serve progressives, democratic
Liban Mohamed: socialists, or democrats at large.
Liban Mohamed: I'm seeking to serve everybody.
Liban Mohamed: And the campaign platform I am running on
Liban Mohamed: is something that majority of us are struggling with every day.
Liban Mohamed: So that's what I'm focused on.
Liban Mohamed: And as long as I'm focused on the issues and the solutions that we're going to provide,
Liban Mohamed: not
Liban Mohamed: only talking about the problems but the plan.
Liban Mohamed: I think voters
Liban Mohamed: will resonate.
Liban Mohamed: And so
Liban Mohamed: yeah, uh
Liban Mohamed: if we win the Democratic primary, I
Liban Mohamed: would
Liban Mohamed: bet
Liban Mohamed: anything
Liban Mohamed: I could if I was a betting man, but uh fortunately I'm not.
Liban Mohamed: But
Liban Mohamed: uh
Liban Mohamed: yeah, we we will whoever wins this Democratic Party primary
Liban Mohamed: will certainly win the general election
Bryan Schott: Holy
Bryan Schott: Ben
Bryan Schott: Mo
Bryan Schott: Muhammad, I've really enjoyed this.
Bryan Schott: This has been a great calm conversation.
Bryan Schott: I've enjoyed spending this time with you.
Bryan Schott: Where are your
Bryan Schott: socials and where can people find you on
Bryan Schott: online?
Liban Mohamed: Yeah, so my website is LibanforCongress.
Liban Mohamed: com.
Liban Mohamed: That's L I B A
Liban Mohamed: N
Liban Mohamed: F O R
Liban Mohamed: C
Liban Mohamed: O
Liban Mohamed: N
Liban Mohamed: G
Liban Mohamed: R E
Liban Mohamed: S S
Liban Mohamed: dot
Liban Mohamed: com.
Liban Mohamed: Uh you can volunteer there, sign up and learn about all the different opportunities to engage.
Liban Mohamed: You can donate and most importantly, you can learn about our platform, what we're standing for.
Liban Mohamed: We have a really beautiful website.
Liban Mohamed: I
Liban Mohamed: had to say
Liban Mohamed: so.
Liban Mohamed: Shout out to our designers.
Liban Mohamed: Alex, I'm going to give you your credit here.
Liban Mohamed: And then also on socials, on TikTok, you can find me at LibanMohammed.
Liban Mohamed: Simple.
Liban Mohamed: Um
Liban Mohamed: on
Liban Mohamed: X
Liban Mohamed: and on Instagram.
Liban Mohamed: You can find me and other places as well.
Liban Mohamed: Liban
Liban Mohamed: for
Liban Mohamed: Congress.
Liban Mohamed: Liban
Liban Mohamed: for
Liban Mohamed: Congress, but the four is the number four in this instance.
Liban Mohamed: So please reach out.